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#INDvBAN: Honour to move along with Pujara, says Murali Vijay

Vijay, who scored 108 on the day, said: "He's a great player. It's great honour to move along with him and pick his brains."

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The mutual admiration and respect that Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara have for each other is well known. They have amassed 2,429 runs together in 36 innings of batting together for India at 67.47, a majority of them for the second wicket and the odd ones for the first. On Thursday, they posted their eighth century stand, and fifth this season in nine Tests.

Pujara missed a century by falling for 83. In doing so, he became the most prolific run accumulator for an Indian domestic season with 1,605 runs in 13 matches starting with Duleep Trophy. The Saurashtra right-hander received a big compliment from his team-mate Vijay.

Vijay, who scored 108 on the day, said: "He's a great player. It's great honour to move along with him and pick his brains."

He added, "We are totally different characters in the dressing room because we don't think the same way but once we go in the middle, we enjoy the company and enjoy each other's success. He's been a fantastic role model for all the youngsters in India. Hopefully he can continuing doing the great work."

Vijay scored a classy 126 in the first Test against England in Rajkot but lost his way, falling to deliveries that he ought to have left. He corrected his mistakes in the break between the third and fourth Test and returned to form with another masterful 136 in Mumbai.

"I was feeling good about my game coming into the Test. Hopefully, I can carry that forward. To be honest, I just saw the new ball for four or five overs, read the wicket and then then I thought I can kind of play my shots," Vijay said of his ninth Test century.

Shots, he did play with gay abandon, pulling the short balls and stepping out to the spinners with so much ease that made Pujara look like laboriously working for his runs.

"I was playing at the balls that I should be leaving actually," Vijay said of the lean patch post Rajkot. "I went back home and gave it a thought, came back to Mumbai and play the way I would rather than playing for the situation and putting too much pressure on me. These are the small things I rectified in the Mumbai Test."

Vijay admired his captain's knock, 111*. "It's always a great sight to see Virat play the way he is at the moment. He has taken his game to a different level. At the end of the day, you can see we are 356. I thought 340 would be great. The extra 10-20 runs happened because of him. The way he's striking the ball is fantastic. Hope he can continue like this tomorrow (Friday).

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